Pre-season this was touted as one of the big games of the year. Now with the Irish reeling, and Stanford coming off of back to back losses and maybe being without McCaffrey. It's just a game between two teams trying to get their seasons back on track. Amazingly the Irish are slight favorites.
:roll: Stanford has been blown out by the Washington schools. They seem to have nothing on pass defense and they're looking for a QB...
If they have nothing on Pass defense then this could be a 65-60 game because we have nothing on Pass defense either. I'll bet though that opposing defensive coaches will do everything they can to take away the deep ball that Kizer/Kelly like to go with and force us into a short game where you have to be precise with routes and throws. They will go bend not break and take their chances that our running game will continue to struggle and our Red Zone offense will be a shaky kicker.
It's bad enough of course that we are losing, and when you lose the fan's boo and start to call for the coach's head. It didn't start with the internet era either. But what I dislike is when it gets ugly, when the hate and vitriol comes out, which it is coming out among ND fans. I'm surprised somebody hasn't gotten liquored up and shot his dog, or slashed his tires, or worse. This is the part I really dislike about being a fan, watching this stuff.
Lot of fans think the blame lies in the zone blocking scheme and the total abandonment of the power running game. It definitely cost us against both Duke and NC State.
Q <t>I don't know OL schemes and which is the best scheme and which are bad ones...or maybe there isn't a bad one. I just don't know. I just know that what ever they were doing last year, zone or whatever, was working and we could run the ball very well. This year not so much. So did we change scheme or what? <br/> <br/> Both McGlinchy and Q.Nelson are considered (still) NFL 1st rounders. <br/> <br/> Maybe it's that other than Q.Nelson every starter is either a new starter or in a new position. I don't really know. <br/> <br/> But clearly we are having problems running the ball, even against Syracuse we didn't really run the ball. Now Kelly, like Weis before him, said that if they are going to give us the pass we're going to take the pass. I remember Weis saying that after a BYU game where they stacked the box and forced him to pass and he did for 400 or 500 yds in a blowout. But still Syracuse was up to that game a terrible run defense, yet they were able to force us to pass..of course they were even worse on pass defense. <br/> <br/> I'll bet that Stanford will drop 7 like they used to do with Tommy Rees and force Kizer to take short gains which require some discipline and patience and good routes by receivers, and basically keep everything in front of them. Their mantra will no doubt be no long balls for ND, they will have to work for every point and hope that Kelly won't have the patience to do that and waste downs trying to go deep.</t>
Article by Keith Arnold wasn't well received by the NDNation bunch, who for the most part have the pitch forks and torches out for Kelly. http://irish.nbcsports.com/2016/10/11/bk-postgame-i-couldnt-find-a-way-to-win-that-game-for-you/ As I've said before I just want the team to win, I'm not personally invested in Brian Kelly, he does have an air of arrogance around him and in the way he deals with criticism after losses. I hope we win out, not to save Kelly's job, but for the fans, the players, the students. If Kelly is gone after the end of the season, so be it. If he wins out ( highly unlikely) and is back next year, I won't have a horrible off season and spend it putting pins in a Brian Kelly Voodoo doll.
Terry, I appreciate your objectivity and fairness in your approach to this situation. I am in lock step with you, even to the point of how I'll feel if he goes or if he stays. I like him as our head coach, but I don't have the emotional attachment to him that I had with Ara and Lou. Addendum: I've read a couple of articles - one specifically - that talk about how in all 4 losses we had a chance to pull out the win late in the game. I've been around teams in the past at the high school and college levels, not all of which were football teams, that had more than normal young, inexperienced players who weren't battle-tested and who didn't know how to win the close games. As a result, those teams' records were disappointing. However, the next year the teams turned it around and had outstanding seasons. Given these experiences, I'm inclined to be more patient that the "win-now-or-else" crowd. Not surprisingly, that puts me in the minority.
Sid...Kelly's personality is his biggest enemy, but bottom line is when you lose the fans get angry. Texas fans on the basic level like Charlie Strong and wish he would succeed, but he's not and they want Charlie gone just as much as many Irish fans want the end of the Brian Kelly era. For more positive news... check this out. Muffet McGraw is the 2017 John Wooden Legends of coaching recipient. http://www.und.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/101116aac.html Congratulations to Muffet.
The team has regressed. Worse yet, we've done it with a fairly weak schedule. Assuming all things being equal, that falls on the head coach. 6-6 would be a superb finish. Army should be a sure win. USC and Virginia Tech are possibilities. Stanford, Miami and Navy...no way. That's how I see it.
Gary Gray is suing the Univ and the NCAA over concussions. This isn't going away, targeting rules aren't working as they are poorly enforced and coaching hasn't changed to train players not to bump heads. I see it every week, players leading with their heads, lowering their heads at impact. http://ndsmcobserver.com/2016/10/complainant-in-lawsuit-alleges-notre-dame-did-not-enforce-safety-regulations/
Well, I'm not worried about any concussions to our current defensive players. They've done a great job of avoiding any hard collisions during games.
My son's high school team spent almost every second of the Spring learning how to tackle. This means they were taught to go against everything they had learned previously, and were to learn a new compliant way of tackling. Known historically for their ferocious defense, the changes weren't exactly welcomed, especially after a horrid showing in their Fall Jamboree. However, the kids eventually 'clicked' in the new technique and they've returned to being known for a stout defense, they locked up a playoff position last week and are in a 4 way tie for 1st with 2 league games remaining. It has been kind of weird watching the transition, but it is proof that safe tackling can be taught and learned. There are much fewer 'boom' type of hits, but at the same time, the defensive numbers and tackling numbers this year are actually up from the previous season.
Players defend Kelly. Not really surprising when you think of it, in similar situations I've seen A&M players go as a team to back I think it was Franchione at the same time that Scott and other A&M fans were completely ready for Fran to be gone. I remember Jimmy Clausen saying before Charlie's last season that he wasn't going to be the reason Charlie was let go. Charlie had just barely hung on to his job following the 2008 season. I can remember the last home game in 2010 the players coming out of the tunnel arm in arm with Charlie. Fans were way beyond wanting Charlie gone. http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/17779763/notre-dame-players-defend-brian-kelly-approach-team
There is always the possibility that this collection of players is just not that good. We are definitely one dimensional on offense with the run simply treated as a diversion. When we come against a stout defense or inclement weather we have a real problem. Losing Alize Jones at TE before the season was a real blow.We have two TEs now who are average blockers and below average receivers.
There are a lot of good players on this team. Kizer is likely to be a 1st round pick at QB, McGlinchy and Q. Nelson are also being tabbed by Kiper and McShay as 1st rounders. Tommy Kraemer and Eichenberg are highly thought of freshmen who can't crack the 2 deep on the OL. St. Brown is clearly a star in the making, C J Sanders is always one step away from taking it all the way as a returner or a receiver. Nyles Morgan is a very good MLB, Studstill for a freshman is looking to have a great future, as is the freshman CB Vaughn. Jerry Tillery is very good and starting to produce. You can't tell me Josh Adams was a flash in the pan, or the speed we've seen at times from Dexter Williams is a mirage. Do we have Ohio State or Alabama talent, nope not even close. But we do have top 25 talent at the very least, and in Kelly's worst year as a coach it's been sad to watch the team not be able to close out games and win, not be able to run the ball. Kelly made a monumental error in bringing back Van Gorder, he should have parted company with him after the Fiesta Bowl. The program was at a point that he probably could have brought in a really really good college DCoord. Then maybe we'd have had a coherent defense vs Texas and I never could understand after the season Kizer had last year why he felt the need to coddle Malik Zaire, make him the "co-starter". It should have been Kizers job to lose from the get go, and if that meant that Zaire left after the Spring as Golson did then so be it. He can't be blamed for Alize Jones, he can't follow Alize around all the time and make sure he went to class and did his work. Maybe the Academic people failed here, those are the ones who are supposed to keep up with that stuff. He didn't tell that idiot Safety to take the freshmen on a party run with a gun and some weed. Although none of the freshmen paid any price that I can see, maybe they have that "1 strike" against them and you only get 2 and you're gone son.
The stats don't lie. After playing a rather mediocre roster of teams we are 91st in total defense. We give up 5.2 yds' per rush and are 90th in pass defense. We were the last team in FBS to register a sack and our tackling is just atrocious. I don't give a dam about a players clippings. I care about performance and ours has been terrible.